Updated at 5 p.m. on July 21: Revised to add McFarland's start date at Lowe's.

Is there a beeline forming between Plano and Mooresville, N.C. ? J.C. Penney has lost its second top executive to home improvement retailer Lowe's.

J.C. Penney's executive vice president over stores and chief customer officer Joe McFarland is leaving the Plano-based department store on Aug. 1, the company said in a federal filing on Friday.

McFarland starts at Lowe's on Aug. 15, Lowe's said late Friday.

McFarland was hired by former CEO Marvin Ellison, who left in May to be CEO at Lowe's, a company that's more than five times the size of Penney and in the category where Ellison spent a good bit of his career.

McFarland and Ellison worked together at Home Depot before going to Penney, and it was rumored that McFarland might be following Ellison to North Carolina. McFarland was hired to oversee Penney's stores in January 2016 when there were more than 1,000 in the fleet. During his time, Penney closed 150 stores and added appliance departments.

Lowe's has had some departures in the executive ranks since Ellison was named CEO. And earlier this month, he restructured the organization, condensing the C-suite by eliminating some jobs and saying the roles would be assumed by other senior leadership.

He also initiated "an external search" for a newly created role of executive vice president for stores — McFarland's role at Penney.